ComingOfAgeStory set during the [[UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution Revolutionary War]]. 1944 Newbery Medal winner and a popular reading assignment in American schools.

The title character is a super-talented apprentice silversmith from Boston whose bright future is apparently ruined when he burns his hand at work. In need of a new life, he befriends a boy named Rab and becomes swept up in the American independence movement.

Disney made TheFilmOfTheBook in TheFifties complete with [[EarWorm an annoyingly catchy song]] about the Liberty Tree ("It's a tall old tree and a strong old tree"). It was actually originally intended as a MadeForTVMovie, hence the low budget and no-name cast, but it ended up getting a theatrical release.----!!Provides examples of:

* AsTheGoodBookSays -- Mr. Lapham pointedly makes Johnny read the PrideBeforeAFall passage at breakfast in order to humiliate him, with Puritanically good intentions.* BeenThereShapedHistory -- Among other things, Johnny participates in the Boston Tea Party and tips off Robert Newman to put two lanterns in the Old North Church belltower.* BerserkButton -- Johnny's hand.* BigBrotherMentor -- Rab to Johnny.* BreakTheHaughty* CantHoldHisLiquor -- Rab and Johnny get Dove drunk [[InVinoVeritas to get information out of him]].* TheClan -- the Lytes on one hand, and the Silsbees on the other.* TheColonialPeriod / UsefulNotes/TheAmericanRevolution* ComingOfAgeStory* CoolHorse -- Goblin.* CoversAlwaysLie -- at least, the above cover is lying if the boy's supposed to be Johnny, since he can't use a gun.* DawsonCasting -- Johnny and Cilla are fourteen at the start of the novel. Their ages were unspecified in the film, but their actors were seventeen and nineteen respectively.* DeathByNewberyMedal -- Well, there IS a war starting (and by ending the book when it did, they halved the body count). Dr. Warren was killed at Breeds/Bunker Hill shortly after the book ends.** [[spoiler: Rab]]'s death, which is naturally eliminated from the [[{{Disneyfication}} Disney version]]. The film does, however, give Johnny himself an [[{{Narm}} overplayed]] DisneyDeath.* DeliberatelyCuteChild -- Isannah, bordering on FilleFatale as she gets older and falls under Lavinia Lyte's influence.* DontYouDarePityMe -- Johnny's hand again.* DownerEnding** Averted in the Disney movie, of course.* DressingAsTheEnemy* EstablishingCharacterMoment -- Johnny can tell that Rab is worth knowing the moment he steps into the printer's shop, and it's Rab's "intelligent remark" about Johnny's hand that cements it.* EvenBadMenLoveTheirMamas -- Lavinia Lyte may be spoiled, rich, and vain, but she's utterly devoted to her father and loves him more than anything. * FallenPrincess -- how Johnny's mother, a Lyte girl, ended up hoping her son could grow up to be a master silversmith at best and dying of a [[IncurableCoughOfDeath vague disease]].* FriendlyEnemy -- Lieutenant [[MeaningfulName Stranger]].** In the film, [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Gage General Gage]] seems to be personally sympathetic to the rebellion, but says that [[JustFollowingOrders he will have to follow his orders regardless]].* GoneHorriblyRight: Dove gives Johnny a cracked crucible to teach him some humility -- and boy, did Johnny learn some after that.* HeroicBSOD -- Johnny goes through this stage after injuring his hand.* HiddenDepths -- Rab; also James Otis in his RousingSpeech scene.* HonestJohnsDealership -- Mr. Lyte is a crooked merchant.* HotBlooded -- Johnny's main character flaw besides arrogance.* InThePastEveryoneWillBeFamous -- Founding Fathers and their associates abound; obviously this is [[JustifiedTrope justified]] to an extent, but we get to know Paul Revere, John Hancock and Josiah Quincy before the impending Revolution becomes even slightly relevant to Johnny's life.* ItsAllJunk -- Johnny gets a chance to take his cup back when the Lytes get run out of town, but by that point he's moved on.* {{Irony}} -- Meta example: The movie was directed by an Englishman, Robert Stevenson.* {{Jerkass}} -- Johnny before he starts to watch himself.* LeaningOnTheFurniture -- One of Rab's main assets in life seems to be the ability to appear casual in any situation.* LongLostRelative -- Johnny and the Lytes.* {{Metaphorgotten}}: After Johnny and Cilla start growing closer, Johnny receives an apple from her and starts to view it as a symbol of his relationship with her, watching it to see if it will ripen or grow stale. Rab eats the apple when Johnny's not looking, though, and is confused at why Johnny is so angry at him for doing so. He offers to buy him more apples and claims it was rotten anyway (luckily not foreshadowing).* MookFaceTurn -- Pumpkin.* {{Nephewism}} -- Rab's parents are dead, so he lives with his aunt and her husband (to whom he is apprenticed).* OrphansOrdeal -- Johnny is an orphan; his first surrogate family is the Laphams, as he is apprenticed to the family patriarch and [[ArrangedMarriage expected to marry]] Cilla once they're old enough so he can inherit the business. Later he is taken in by Rab and his family. Meanwhile his actual extended family, the Lytes, want nothing to do with him.* OrphansPlotTrinket: The silver cup.* PrideBeforeAFall* ReadingTheEnemysMail* RedOniBlueOni -- Johnny and Rab.* TheResenter -- Dove.* RichBitch -- Lavinia Lyte.* RousingSpeech -- "A man can stand up."* SheIsAllGrownUp -- Cilla.* ShotAtDawn* TheStoic -- Rab.* TellMeAboutMyFather* VillainousWidowsPeak -- Johnny, though the text actually describes it as a mark of ''wisdom''. It seems the trope has changed a bit over time.* WillTheyOrWontThey -- Johnny and Cilla's mutual crush never gets a resolution, nor, for that matter, do Rab's attempts to win her.** Well, Rab/Cilla does get a [[DeathOfTheHypotenuse quick wrap-up when Rab goes down the road to Lexington.]]----